History claims that best of the performing artists have come from the toughest and the nadir of our society. Similar has been our experience during an awkward-for-village-folks sounding “MIME” workshop, organized at village Rataolan’s Akal Academy where young rural students got a chance to portray their artistic side at performance arts.

For those of you new to the concept of “MIME”, it’s a theatrical technique of suggesting action, character, or emotion without words, using only gestures, mimicry, expressions, and movements.
It is one of those types of stage arts, which knows no boundaries or barriers of language, region, culture, ethnicity etc, for it relies totally on human expression, which, by virtue of our existence, is universal.

Akal Academy’s rural young kids whilst exhibiting and explicating the true spirit behind the MIME artistry did great justice to the cult art.

“Alongside our academic efforts at preparing these rural kids to secure mainstream for them, wherein they grow up into competent youth, events like these play a pivotal role in enabling these children to be able to connect universally; it not just gives them knowledge & universal understanding, but also helps imbibe elements of developing into globally adaptive citizens who are able to establish connection with the societies alien to them, by simply learning to express even beyond language barriers, or even words for that matter”, explained Kiranjit Kaur, the Principal of the academy, while expressing her idea upon need for observing workshops so innovative and diverse to our(rural) culture.

– Ramandeep Singh
– New Delhi, 5th Nov’ 13

Akal Academy run by The Kalgidhar Trust, located at village Kakra Kalan recently organized an Inter-house Debate and News Reading Competition amongst young students of class 1^st to 4^th; an event observed in light of the organization’s view of all-round development of children.

During this inter-house event, class 3^rd and 4^th students – Sahibjit Singh, Harkirat Singh, Sartaaj Singh and Navjot Kaur gave beautiful and expressive speeches in favor of the motion “Homework assigned by schools” wherein participants Rajvinder Singh, Ranjodh Singh, Sukhram Singh and Ramandeep Kaur presented their strong points against the motion.

Amongst the younger lot, class 1^st and 2^nd students – little Sukhmandeep Singh, Shubhneet Kaur, Gurnoop Preet Kaur and Komalpreet Kaur put forth their splendid views upon the topic of “Keeping Cleanliness” while young Sukhandeep Kaur, Jasmeet Singh, Shubreet Kaur & Sumanpreet Kaur confidently addressed the audience with their words upon “The importance of taking up good habits” during the Paper Reading Competition.

Amongst the former group, Ramandeep Kaur and Harkirat Singh bagged 1^st & 2^nd positions respectively in the Debate Competition whereas amongst the latter group, little girls Subhpreet & Komalpreet Kaur swept the boards to take up the 1^st & 2^nd spot respectively in the Paper Reading competition.

Amongst the 4 houses viz. Amul, Atul, Abhay & Ajay house, house Atul topped the charts to win both the competition titles. The school staff appreciated the confidence and performances of the students.

On the occasion, Principal Kulvinder Kaur encouraged the kids whilst motivating them to take up good habits, keeping cleanliness & doing homework on time. She further said, “At all Akal Academies, special care and focus is put onto developing techniques and finding ways to enhance both mental and physical capabilities among our students. Thus, several kinds of competitions and events are organized to fulfill the purpose.” Such activities, especially in the form of competition, help not only in developing self-confidence but also invoke spirit of healthy competition amongst students, she further added.

~ Deeksha Singh
~ New Delhi, 2nd Nov ’13

With Diwali just few hours away and kids around the nation are in full spirits, planning their own ways of celebrating the festival of lights, we just received our first ‘n’ fresh report, a colorful one in fact, from our even colorful little young children of Akal Academy at village Phaphre Bhai Ke.

Today, in an ongoing exclusive Diwali-Fun-Filled Competition event, being organized at the Academy Campus, little rural artists are Painting Diyas with wonderful colors; some of the kids are decorating Diyas with gold and silver glitter paper – as a special version they plan to gift to their teachers.

The colorful ones would be receiving their spark on the eve of Diwali, as the students with their teacher plan to beautify the campus, aligning these Diyas in several creative patterns and color combinations – as a symbol of oneness in diversity and inter-faith harmony to represent and spread the message of spiritual brotherhood & peace as proclaimed in Sikh-Faith & followed across all 129 Akal Academies.

Similar preparations and celebrations are on their way across all Academies that are spread across 6450 villages on Punjab, Haryana, UP & Rajasthan, where children of all faith learn to come together to make this world a more lovable, peaceful & graceful place for Human Race.

Did you know that 60000+ rural students, studying across all All Akal academies in all villages have favoured to not use any form of crackers this Diwali, but instead celebrate a colorful Diya-Candle lit Diwali this season!

~ Ramandeep Singh
~ New Delhi, 2nd Nov ’13

What are your Diwali plans? Share with us in the comment box below –

From explicating concepts of “Sky-Farming” to exploring possibilities through the current world-trending topic of “Life on Mars” or even going into scientific depths of “Human Health & Antibiotics” – the rural students of class 8^th & 9^th from village Dhanal Kalan Akal Academy, had the school teachers and the audience pinned to their seats with their interesting power-point presentations that surprised everyone not just because of the nature of topic but also by the professionalism and composure exhibited by the participants who were facing the audience presenting for the first time.

This sublime set of presentations were observed during a recent Inter-House Discovery Competition, organized by the Akal Academy; the idea was conceptualized by the school authorities, keeping in view the vision of The Kalgidhar Trust, the charitable organization behind running unique network of 129 value-based education schools (& growing…), which seeks to secure mainstream through academics and other activities for the Rural India. The organization is relentlessly putting in efforts to develop globally good competent and peace-making citizens through its unique blend of modern-scientific education and social-moral values induced through spiritual practices.

For the event, the participants were divided in teams of 4 each, who represented their respective houses viz. Amul, Atul, Ajay and Abhay. Whilst the Amul house won itself the 1^st place through its highly detailed presentation on Antibiotics & Health, Abhay House secured the 2^nd spot for its strategic attempt at familiarizing the audience with a relatively fresh and deeply interesting scientific research on Sky Farming. House Atul managed to captivate the audience with its presentation on the hot ongoing-world-trending subject of science’s latest breakthrough discoveries and exploration upon “Life on Mars”, wherein Ajay House had to settle at the bottom with the topic of “Evolution and Importance of Telephones” for the competition.

“This was one of our new experimental initiatives in line with the vision of our mother organization; it’s pleasantly surprising to see such an overwhelming output. We are certain that with ongoing strong support and ideas coming through members, supports & volunteers, we will be remarkably successful in our efforts of bringing about a true Rural Transformation in India through means of highly modernized schooling concepts blended with traditional core ethics, instilled into each student through spiritual practices”, quoted the Principal Ms. Harpreet Kaur of Akal Academy at village Dhanal Kalan.

~ Ramandeep Singh
~ New Delhi, 1st Nov ’13

Amid world climate turmoil, whilst the scientists are raising concerns and environmentalists in most countries are discussing ways to bring down the pollution levels in order to avoid the imminent extreme rise in temperature over the next 2 decades; the rural students and teachers of village Saniana’s Akal Academy have already taken up the combat mode.

Over the past couple of months, the school staff alongside students and teachers has been actively observing plantation drives across the village and nearby areas in vicinity. Together, the young enthusiast transformers have successfully planted 500 tree-saplings. The locals were excited watching the children planting trees that they too have decided to participate in further tree plantation activities.

“In light of the parent organization – The Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib’s core values, which seek to make this world a better living place through producing good global peace-making citizens. The task of saving, preserving and improving the environment and the mother earth stands integral to responsibility of these young world citizens, by the virtue of both – their faith & learning’s that are imbibed into them”, expressed Mrs Raj Goyal, Principal of the school. She also explained that it is important and critical for adults to take up the role of motivating the youth through leading by example and contributing alongside the kids.

“We cannot assume worldwide change unless we change ourselves to begin with – which only can acts as the strong motivating and influencing force for the upcoming generations to follow”, she further added.

~ Ramandeep Singh
~ New Delhi, 30th Oct ’13

Village Kalloh Akal Academy recently organized an exclusively designed event for the rural kids called – English Action Songs. The activity not just focuses onto learning English dancing moves, but also singing while dancing – the activity was organized to help them develop spoken English speaking skills… it’s the game of perfect lip-sync throughout the dance performance.

The designed activity is the integral part of the curriculum that is specifically knitted to develop fluency in English of the students. Experts believe that English, though being a subject of study, is rather an art when it comes to developing proficiency and accuracy especially at spoken English, which in turn automatically gives way to higher level achievements at reading and writing.

Hence, like it should be taken up as any other form of art – it all begins as a hobby – for which the interest has to be induced into a child first.

“Since for any hobby to develop, maintain and sustain, before it takes the shape as an art, one needs an environment both supportive and conductive to help keep the hobby active. The art of great English, is perhaps, no different on that context either”, revealed a young English teacher of the Akal Academy.

The Principal Ms. Manmohan Kaur added, “Since we understand that elements that create such an environment, like a group of English speaking friends or trend of following English programs/movies/music or such hobbies,  are non-existent in Rural India environments, hence it’s critical for us to inorganically create such atmosphere.

Also, we believe if we simply create such an atmosphere primarily, the learning and the education part will see significant improvements in terms of proficiency and fluency at this universal language, that has gained much of world importance and have become more of a necessity from being a mere requirement over the last 2 decades.

Thus, the need was felt and hence the efforts were applied to acknowledge efforts beyond textual learning and school academics to bridge socio-dynamic gap between the metros and the rural environments that prevail amongst students beyond school.”

~ Deeksha Singh
~ New Delhi, 29th Oct ’13

Keeping up with the strategy of leading by example, teachers alongside staff at village Ahmedpur Darewala Academy undertook the pious task of performing 3 Akhand Paths, all by themselves.

The teachers and other members of the school recited the 3 Akhand Path Sahibs continuously staying back at the Academy for 3 nights and devoutly took their roles in scheduled shifts. During the event, several villagers contributed by helping the members in organizing for the Bhog ceremony, which was observed in the final week of last month.

“We got much encouragement from villagers, their great enthusiasm really supported us in performing our duties”, cited Mrs. Amandeep Kaur,  the former Principal of the Academy, who is now heading Akal Academy Rajia at the same post.

The Bhog ceremony was observed with Grand Celebrations; all the parents attended the event on the concluding day where post ‘Bhog’, students performed 3 brilliantly prepared choreographies upon ‘Mera Sona Desh Punjab’, ‘Naam Khumari Nanaka’ & ‘The Sikh History’ followed by some interesting ‘Kirtan’ and religious poetry sessions by 2^nd class students. The music teachers also sensitized the audience with their exclusively prepared Anand Sahib recitation.

The event was also enjoined by village Ellenabad Akal Academy Principal Mrs.Sukhjeet Kaur, who alongside AA Darewala’s Principal Ms. Gurmeet Kaur honored the head of the village Darewala to reward the students who secured top positions during the 1^st academic semester.

~ Ramandeep Singh
~ New Delhi, 28th Oct ’13

We are happy to announce that with grace of Almighty and your benign support, village Cheema Akal Academy’s Kindergarten branch located in Sheron, on October 21 observed inauguration of its new school building, which recently saw its completion stage.

The inauguration was done by the village ‘Panchayat’ alongside organizing staff members. For adding grace to the event “Sri Akhand Sahib” was performed to seek the blessings of Almighty.  ‘Bhog’ of Sri Akhand Sahib was followed by a session of religious poems & short-stories from Sikh history, narrated by little young students of the Akal Academy.

On the occasion, Principal Mrs. Baljeet Kaur of Akal Academy Cheema alongside Kindergarten division in-charge(Sheron) Harvinder Kaur, addressed the audience with their speech, familiarizing the audience with the workings of The Kalgidhar Trust – based on roadmap proclaimed through Sant Attar Singh Ji’s wish; explained about the activities being undertaken and the strategies that the organization is devising for providing unique value-based worldly education alongside spiritual-moral values to the rural children, especially in the rural-backward regions.

Also, on the occasion, the donors of the land-building i.e. Mata Gurdev Kaur and her son Kuldeep Singh were honored by the organizers, volunteers and the staff members.

Our main office team, on behalf of all the volunteers and members of the staff across all 129 Akal Academies and University colleges, salutes the philanthropic spirit of the donors, who being villagers, have come forth to exhibit such great gesture of love and support for transformation of the rural societies through an act so noble, honest and pure.

~ Ramandeep Singh
~ New Delhi, 26th Oct ’13

Staff Members and the Principal of Akal Academy at village Ellenabad, recently undertook the pious task of doing Sehej Path in reverence to Almighty. The occasion of ‘Bhog’ ceremony saw grand celebrations where students from village Ahmedpur Darewala, Akal Academy also joined the event alongside teachers with full gusto.

Contributing to the event in great fervor, the students of village Ahmedpur performed two wonderful choreographies followed by couple of Shabads in high spirits of celebration sung with great enthusiasm. The performance was much appreciated and devoutly enjoyed by the holy congregation. The parents were much obliged and astonished to see their little kids performing with such serenity and confidence. “It was our great pleasure when we heard the encouraging comments from the parents about the kids’ performances”, spoke the Principal of Akal Academy, Ahmedpur while addressing the parents and the audience, on behalf of the members of the Academy.

The event was observed in light of the Akal Academies’ belief of leading the students by example; the Kalgidhar Trust – the charitable organization behind Akal Academies, strongly believes that true values and morals can be instilled into children only when aspiring teachers double up as role models.

Across all of its 129+ schools imparting Value-Based Education across 6450 villages of North India, the organization relentlessly observes development of customized faculties. Aspiring teachers are additionally trained on aspects of spiritual and human values, laying foundation of Noble and Upright character building of the students.

~ Ramandeep Singh
~ New Delhi, 25th Oct ’13